A newspaper mandated by Congress to remain editorially independent is asking its applicants how they can support the Trump administration.
Applicants to the Stars and Stripes, a 165-year-old newspaper that has a reach of 1.4 million, in the last few months have been asked, “How would you advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”
The application for the publication is on the USAJobs portal, which is the destination for all federal job seekers. The publication was not aware that these questions were on the application until the Washington Post inquired about them, according to a new report.
Jacqueline Smith, the newspaper’s ombudsman, a congressionally mandated role tasked with maintaining the newspaper’s editorial independence, told the Post, “Asking prospective employees how they would support the administration’s policies is antithetical to Stripes’ journalistic and federally mandated mission.”
“Journalistically, it’s against ethics, because reporters or any staff member—editors, photographers—should be impartial,” Smith added.
She noted that it was not the newspaper that added the questions, but rather the Office of Personnel Management.
The question asked of applicants at Stars and Stripes is one of four being posed to prospective federal government employees.
In June, OPM mandated that nearly all government job applications directly and indirectly ask questions about their feelings on the current administration as part of its new Merit Hiring Plan.
The three other questions ask applicants how their commitment to the Constitution inspired them to pursue a role with the federal government; how their work ethic has contributed to their achievements; and how the applicant would “improve government efficiency and effectiveness” in a nod to the Trump administration’s now-winded-down Department of Government Efficiency project.
Smith told the Post that while she understood why applicants for some jobs in the federal government would need to be asked these questions, she noted that “for a journalism job, it’s just inappropriate.”
The newspaper’s publisher, Max Lederer, told the Post that OPM did not tell Stars and Stripes that those questions were being added to the application. He said it was his “understanding” that “answering is optional and they are not a qualification criterion.”
“Regarding our recruiting, the federal government’s platform wasn’t designed with Stars and Stripes in mind,” Editor in Chief Erik Slavin told the Post. “We pride ourselves on objectivity. We’ve reinforced our commitment to scrupulous balance and accuracy. We do not shy away from holding military officials accountable when a story calls for it.”
The Daily Beast reached out to Stars and Stripes and OPM for comment.
Most of the revenue at the Stars and Stripes comes from sales, subscriptions, and ads, but the paper is partly funded by the Department of Defense in order to support overseas reporting and distribution, according to a 2020 CNN report.
In 2020, the first Trump administration tried to shutter Stars and Stripes, which dates back to the Civil War, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as veterans, pushed back on the move. Trump later walked the effort back, writing in a tweet “It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!”
But now, under the second Trump administration, those at the outlet have said they are just trying to avoid attention from the administration.
“We’re still trying to go under the radar,” one Stripes reporter told the Post. “There are folks at Stripes who are like, ‘Don’t poke the bear.’”
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